friday

I just spent a long weekend in lovely Portland, Oregon and I’m feeling recharged and ready to tackle anything. While I didn’t give up my daily writing habit, it’s so normal that it doesn’t feel like work, I did take a break from editing. As a result of a week long break from writing in the morning and editing most of the day, I’m feeling twice as productive now that I’ve had some rest.

I love writing and editing and it was hard to tear myself away for a few days where I didn’t obsess about it. What I learned was that breaks are really good for me. I explored a new city, got inspired, relaxed and ended up helping my creativity. Naps without guilt helped tremendously.

I was starting to dread sitting down to edit and my attitude changed entirely by the time I arrived home. I’ll be scheduling more frequent vacations for myself in the near future.

Is there anything that helps your creativity that you stubbornly don’t do enough? I’d love to hear about it in a comment!

I’m super excited to announce that the second book in my Alternative Series, Alternative Paths, is now available on Amazon! For today the prequel (a short novella), Alternative Desires (book one) and the brand new Alternative Paths are available for free download on Amazon!

I’m really excited to offer these to people that follow my blog and I hope you’ll take advantage. If you’re feeling really generous, I’d love it if you shared, or leave a review.

I’ve been hard at work writing and editing the last month to hand you my latest book, Alternative Paths, out and FREE on Friday April 14th! It’s been a wild few months and I’m loving this series.

Here’s what you can expect:

FBI Agent Jaclyn Jacquin’s life is once again thrown into chaos when she receives the one thing she’s been seeking since she lost it.

After the dramatic conclusion of their last case together she has finally admitted her feelings and started a fiery romance with Agent Wes Wexler. Things are going perfectly well until the success of their last case propels her into an impossible situation. Suddenly she’s thrust back into her old position in the Counter Terrorism Unit with Wes as her new partner.

Jaclyn knows that her career once again hangs in the balance if the secret of their romance gets out. She makes the difficult choice to end things, but the separation is more complicated than she expected. Neither one of them is prepared for the intense feelings that surface as they race against the clock to stop the unspeakable.

With their feelings in turmoil, she and Wes will have to work with the rest of the team to investigate a cultish church that is signaling trouble. When an Agent recently placed undercover goes missing, the stakes are even higher. Soon their investigation takes them to an ice covered small town to quietly investigate, but things don’t go as planned.
Before they’ve had a chance to adjust to the new reality of being apart, the unthinkable happens pushing them closer together until they find themselves fighting for their lives.

I’ll post a link on Friday, and as my little gift to you, the first book in the series will be free on Friday too so you can get all caught up!

I thought that with all the writing I’m doing these days I ought to slow down and give you some background on why I’m writing this series.

The first and terrible truth is that this book was born out of a few things, but mostly my desire to have a modern day X-Files book series with a little less aliens, a little bit of government conspiracy, and a lot more sexiness. I feel like X-Files was from a time when things were a bit less tense in our country. While Mulder and Scully trusted no one, the things that were covered up in that series feels just a little laughable in the modern day when we’re dealing with so much more. Ah, the days of my youth when UFO coverups were all the rage and not wiretaps and Russian influence in the elections…

Which leads me to the second thing. This book was also thought up right around the time of the inauguration of 45. For me personally that first month was an incredibly challenging time filled with fear: fear for my own life, that of my minority and LGBT friends, and for my own community. While this fear has not passed, I found comfort in writing this. I wrote a set of characters who might not always get it right, but who are champions for the truth and ruthless in their pursuit of justice, no matter who the monster is behind the mask.

I also made an effort to make sure that my characters showed some of the values that I hold near and dear to my heart. Jaclyn is a feminist. She goes out into the Seattle streets and marches just like I did on January 21st for women’s rights, even if she is nursing a horrid hangover the day after her entire life falls apart. She is career driven and kind but takes no shit from anyone. I hope that as she evolves she becomes even better.

I also take care to not make my male protagonist a horrid misogynist or an abusive jerk. I suppose chapter three has some of those elements, Wes does not use his words when he feels like he’s in danger of being exposed, but I tried to write those elements less about violence towards women and more about Wes seeing her as equally dangerous to him in that moment.

It’s one of the things that I find the hardest to justify in romance novels and it’s a pitfall I tried to avoid. I’m not a fan of some common tropes: forced marriages, being forced to stay with anyone, and various other types of emotional abuse. No one is coerced to love. Love grows organically and out of a lot of mistakes.

So there you have it.

If you managed to get through this entire blog and you’ve never even read my books, here is a little gift. It’s the prequel to the book Alternative Desires (the one talked about in this blog) and it’ll get you up to speed for the release of that book. If you do read Alternative Desires (free today and Saturday here) I’d love feedback.

I’ve been super busy and I’m excited to share with you! Here is the new cover for the first book in my Alternative series.

“The destruction of her career, the end of a relationship, and a country in turmoil have left FBI Agent Jaclyn Jacquin on unstable ground at best. When a pair of enticing green eyes attracts her from across a crowded bar she has no idea that her lustful glances will lead her on a path she never would have expected.

Agent Wesley Wexler is dangerous distraction for a life that is already in chaos. Soon Jaclyn finds herself consumed with this case and with him. Agent Wexler brings with him an irresistible attraction, a deep distrust of those in power, and secrets of his own.

An informant risks his career and life to come forward and suddenly a money laundering case turns into a quest to uncover a plan to kill thousands with Agent Wexler providing the missing pieces. Now, as obstacles continue to spring up in her path as she investigates connections to a hate-spewing Congressman, she must decide whether or not she believes the claims of Agent Wexler.

Is there something much more sinister here than meets the eye? Is a politician really using campaign funds for evil to boost his chances of winning reelection? Has he manipulated those in his inner circle to do anything for him, including kill?

With no support from the FBI, and a million obstacles in the way, their bond grows and Jaclyn is scared of the feelings that start to develop between them. Jaclyn wants to rebuild the career she destroyed, but she must figure out how far she’s willing to go outside of the rules to solve this case. What scares her most of all is not knowing if they’ll be able to put the pieces together before it’s too late.”

If you’d like to get a taste of the series, check out the prequel: Alternative Beginnings for free.